Octavio+Rodriguez

Octavio Rodriguez A 2010 Census brief on the nation's Hispanic population, which shows the Hispanic population increased by 15.2 million between 2000 and 2010 and accounted for more than half of the total U.S. population increase of 27.3 million. Between 2000 and 2010, the Hispanic population grew by 43 percent, or four times the nation's 9.7 percent growth rate. This is important to know because even before kindergarten, Hispanic children are less prepared than their peers for elementary school because of lower enrollment rates in early childhood programs, poverty-level family households, and the preference of Hispanic parents to keep their children at home. Hispanics have the highest dropout rate (30%) at both the state and national levels. The proportion of Hispanic children has increased faster than that of any racial or ethnic group. By 2020, it is projected that more than 1 in 5 children in theUnited States will be of Hispanic origin. Assuming that the high dropout rate (30%) persists, we could have upwards of three million Hispanic dropouts in theUnited States. (Federal and Interagency Forum on Child & Statistics, 2010).
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One of the major challenges facing this ever growing Hispanic population due to illegal immigration and high birth rate is the educational achievement gap between Hispanic students and their peers. In this regards, the enrollment of Hispanics in secondary, community, and university programs lags behind the rest of the nation. Hispanic students are lost all along the education continuum for a variety of reasons which is highlighted by the fact that only 25% of 1998 Latino eighth graders obtained a four year college degree by 2000. (Understanding the Latino Exp. Cavanaugh M.) There has been a dramatic change in the value of education in the last 50 years. Prior to World War II, it was acceptable to drop out of school to support family. In the 1950’s, a high school education was considered a valuable asset in the labor market. But today, advances in technology have fueled the demand for a highly skilled labor force. If we equate a lack of education with the inability to acquire career opportunities, then the educational system needs to take appropriate outcome-based steps to reverse the present situation if the economic development of the Hispanic population is going to reach middle class or beyond. Some steps at the national level have been taken as evidenced by the No Child Left Behind law signed by President Bush in January 2002. However, whether our present steps are the appropriate outcome-based steps that will reverse the present situation is still a matter of controversy.

Creating a program that would increase the number of Hispanic students that not only complete high school but continue on to a college or university would benefit the district and each school. Project excel was created for that purpose and many students that take part in the program succeed and continue on to higher education. A program is essential because most Hispanic students that we serve in the district have no way of knowing what the next step is after high school because many of them are 1st in their family to go to college. There are other programs that have had a positive outcome on student achievement and graduation rate and implementing such a program would help a population that is and will continue to grow at each school. The needs of these students need to be met and someone needs to create something for them that will help them make the extremely challenging process of college admittance easy for them. I would never be where I am today if it was not for the help of extremely dedicated counselors and former teachers that would keep pushing me to do better.

There are numerous studies that point to the fact that these programs are successful and that there are some out there. In determining what would work best for district 211 I would focus on the needs of the students and what they are missing when it comes to knowledge about college requirements and preparation. Working with the native speaker classes I would have access to a large sampling of the students at Hoffman Estates High School and would be able to determine what is lacking in the school when it comes to their needs. Creating a program that would get the attention of not only them but also of their parents as in most cases the parents still have the same mentality that a high school diploma is enough since for many of them they never even completed elementary school. Parent involvement would be a key and having someone that is Hispanic and had to find all the information that non-Hispanics take for granted would be a great way to get complete parent participation. I know 1st hand that when my teachers involved my parents in the educational process they were more willing to come to school and take part in events as long as they saw that it was something that would benefit their son. Hispanic parents I know for a fact from personal experience tend to stay away from the schools because they have complete trust in the teachers and administrators to them we are people that we should respect. We are always right and if you get a parent involved in their child’s education you will have someone that will be on them all the time. I do know that not only do they want to be involved but they also care deeply for the school they value that their child is attending a great school and they know how good they have it. Again from experience what we have as a culture in our schools to them is different they do not understand about sports, about activities, about dances or other traditions that we have at each school. When I was growing up and experiencing the different cultural events that my high school had to offer I was really lost. A program that would help students feel part of the school and would include the parents would benefit all that deal with Hispanic students and at the rate the Hispanic population is continuing to rise we will all have to deal with them in one way shape or form.
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I would measure the success of a program from the various surveys that I would send out to students and parents asking for their feedback about the program and ways to improve it. I would use information gathered from the other school and compare it to Hoffman’s numbers for graduation and will send out surveys to those seniors that would graduate. Their feedback would help improve the program and would get similar results at all schools. This would be a program or student intervention that all teachers would be able to use and could apply to the rest of their students no only Hispanic. I have been using a similar process but after researching I have found that I could so much more for my students in my class. Student and parent feedback after graduation would be used to validate the program and show its need for not only Hoffman Estates High School but also for any school with a Hispanic population that will continue to grow even if we remove all the illegal immigrants which is a fear that a lot of the students I talk to have. This is s fear of theirs because in the last 5 years there has been a dramatic change in the way that immigration is looked at and is a topic that most people try to stay away from.

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After the implementation of this program the numbers would show that more D211 Hispanic students are not only continuing on into 2 and 4 year universities but would also complete these programs. Those that would graduate could be used as motivational speakers in different fields that would be able to come and talk to our current students showing them that education is a way for them to succeed. If there is an increase in the number of students that continue on to 2 and 4 year universities we would survey them to make sure that their participation on the program helped them and that it provided them with the necessary tools to succeed. If the data does show that our student intervention program for Hispanics works we would be able to focus on all the other sub groups that make up each school. The evaluation process would be the only drawback as we would be limited by the responses of those that would take the survey and return it to us to put into our data. We would use mainly the surveys of those that were about to graduate to add to our data.

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1. Can district 211 continue to be as successful if the Hispanic population is not meeting AYP? 2. Is AYP is a good starting point in determining if this program will work in all schools? Why or why not? I know that you are all working on your own ideas and ways to impact our district but I found this article that gives actual data on what works for them and if it works for them why could it not work for us. We would just need to adapt what works to our students and use something that has worked. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13px;">[] <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13px;">[]

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13px;">Invitation to others:

1. I would need help from the other teachers at the other school in passing out the surveys to the graduating class. I would then tally all the surveys by question and summarize my findings for each school. Students would all have the same survey questions in English and Spanish for those that like me are able to express themselves better in Spanish. 2. If a paper survey would be too much to pass out and collect I would create a survey on my personal web site which would tabulate all students’ responses and group them by school. I would just ask teachers to either provide me with the names of Hispanic Students in their schools that would be graduating.